Alumni Directory Display

Lauren grew up in Plymouth, MN. She was granted a leadership award to attend Colorado College, where she earned a B.A. in International Political Economy with minors in African and Asian Studies in December 2015. Following a semester in China becoming proficient in Mandarin and studying 20th century history and art, she spent the summer of 2014 trekking through the Annapurna region of Nepal investigating sustainability, religion, and the consequences of outmigration for Tibetan refugees. Lauren then traveled to Uganda, where she spent the fall semester studying Luganda and issues of East African development. During this time, she conducted an internship with the Uganda Red Cross Society at the Mungula Refugee Settlement and carried out independent research which culminated in a published report: “Agency of the South Sudanese: Compensating for Health Care in Mungula Refugee Settlement.” Lauren then spent the summer of 2015 traveling around Turkey, Greece, Hungary, Austria, and Germany to conduct research for her thesis, which analyzed market failures in the international provision of protection for Syrian refugees. Following graduation, Lauren worked in Minneapolis as a refugee resettlement assistant at the International Institute of Minnesota. She will spend the summer of 2016 developing extracurricular activities at the Highland Boarding School for Tibetan refugees in Dhunche, Nepal on a Kathryn W. Davis Projects for Peace Grant. Lauren is thrilled to have the opportunity to continue refugee work within Uganda as a Grants Fellow with the International Rescue Committee. She can’t wait to dust off her Luganda and explore all of the incredible hikes, dance clubs and whitewater rafting the region has to offer!

Kristin graduated in 2012 with a degree in Urban Studies and a minor in African Studies. While at Stanford, Kristin interned for a legal aid organization where she designed a court-monitoring project to track trends of bias and legal mistakes in restraining order proceedings.  In South Africa, she studied, interned at gender-based violence and urban development organizations, worked at a rape crisis center, and performed research on behalf of three NGOs. In this research, Kristin analyzed township residents’ conceptions of justice and pathways towards finding formal and informal justice and health services. While in Ethiopia, Kristin looks forward to travelling, learning Amharic, and immersing herself in the local culture.

Alumni Update:

Marielle is the Impact Manager at Women Win, a multi-dimensional women’s fund with two main areas of work: Girls’ rights through sport and play, and women’s economic resilience. She is responsible for Women Win’s monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning practice. Marielle is also the co-founder of RefugeeForce, a social enterprise that develops the skills and careers of Refugees while bringing talent and diversity to the Salesforce ecosystem.

Fellow Bio:

Marielle graduated with a degree in History and a minor in Poverty, Social Justice, and Human Capabilities. While pursuing her degree, she captained the club soccer team, volunteered her time with mentally disabled adults in Houston, and studied public health in Copenhagen, Denmark. Through past internships, Marielle has studied Swahili in Kenya, researched family planning in Zanzibar, Tanzania, and built rainwater harvesting systems in Lesotho. Marielle is excited to return to Nairobi to gain experience in the field, brush up on her Swahili, and run the Lewa half-marathon next summer!

Isaiah graduated as an Ervin Scholar from Washington University in St. Louis in May 2017 with a BA in International and Area Studies, concentrating in Global Development, and a minor in Religion and Politics. On campus Isaiah was  involved with Sigma Iota Rho, an international affairs academic honorary, and the Washington University International Relations Council, which hosts the university’s model United Nations team. He has also spent the last four years working for Development Programs at the university for the School of Engineering and the Siteman Cancer Center on projects including donor outreach and management, third-party event coordination, and report writing. Isaiah spent the Spring of 2016 studying abroad in Tunis, Tunisia where he was able to work on his French and Arabic skills while exploring the causes and effects of the Arab Spring movement up close. The end of his semester abroad was spent researching the effects of state land policy in a small town in rural Southern Tunisia. Isaiah interned with The Carter Center’s Democracy Programs in summer 2016 where he was involved in grants and program management for the Center’s Tunisian field office and a limited election observation mission to Zambia’s national elections.

Elijah graduated from the University of Georgia with majors in international affairs and economics. He spent six months in Kenya working with the African Prisons Project, where he taught law courses and served as a paralegal to death row inmates in three maximum-security prisons around the country. He was an investigative intern at the Georgetown University Law Center Criminal Justice Clinic, where he worked with attorneys to create defense theories for indigent and mentally ill clients. Scott also conducted client intake and legal research at the Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights to investigate claims of education discrimination. In addition to his experience in the legal field, Scott has extensive experience mentoring and educating youth, as he spent over a year facilitating weekly restorative justice trials and leading courtroom etiquette and public speaking trainings for middle- and high-school students with Athens Peer Court. He has researched the intersection of minority rights and conflict in northeastern Kenya and the Xinjiang region of China through the Universitatea Babeș-Bolyai Conflict Studies Center in Cluj, Romania. Scott has studied abroad at the University of Oxford and the London School of Economics, and he has conducted independent research on the future of the regulatory structure of Antarctic Treaty in Ushuaia, Argentina and West Antarctica. Finally, Scott was the Operations Director of the Georgia Political Review for one year, during which he managed an eleven-person Editorial Board and thirty-person Writing Staff and planned and organized lectures and debates. He is looking forward to exploring his host country!

Alumni Update:

Oluseyi is currently finishing her first year of graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania where she studies Social Work and Global Public Health. This is a three year program that will result in an MSW/MPH with focuses on health communications and health communications for mental health.

Fellow Bio:

Originally from Lagos, Nigeria, Oluseyi graduated with a BA in Print Journalism and French. Oluseyi is passionate about the study of the African continent in addition to nutrition, global food systems/the policies that govern them, and the intersection of food and politics. During her year in Rwanda, Oluseyi hopes to explore the beauty of a country rich in history and nature, to learn everything she can about agriculture and nutrition from her host organisation: Gardens for Health International, and to sharpen her French language skills while gaining new ones in Kinyarwanda.

Anisha Sehgal, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, graduated from Georgetown University with a B.S. in Global Health. She is committed to working towards the social, political, and economic empowerment of all people and believes in the power of sustainable, high- impact public health initiatives to aid in this objective. Anisha has published research on antibiotic resistance, written blogs on reproductive health policy, and contributed to an accepted grant proposal regarding the inclusion of individuals with disabilities in research activities. As an advocacy intern at Save the Children, Anisha successfully organized an event at the Open Government Partnership Summit in Tbilisi, Georgia. The event brought together civil society organizations and government officials from Kenya and Liberia to discuss and advocate for increased public participation in governance. Most recently, she lived in Tanzania for four months where she interned at the National Institute for Medical Research. While there she designed and conducted a study on the prevalence, drivers, and reproductive health implications of child marriage in Mwanza, Tanzania. Anisha is excited for the opportunity to return to the continent as a Princeton in Africa fellow and looks forward to working for the International Rescue Committee in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Priscilla Takondwa, from Malawi, graduated from Smith College with a BA in African Studies and the Study of Women and Gender. At Smith, she served as President of the African and Caribbean Students’ Association for 2 years and was an inaugural recipient of the BOLD Women’s Leadership Network Scholarship. She is a published author and founder of an educative children’s book series called The Ekari Book Series, for which she won the OZY Media Genius Awards and the Draper Competition for Collegiate Women Entrepreneurs. She was also selected as one of the Hilliard P. Jenkins Fellows at Frontline Solutions, a consulting firm in Washington DC that engages young leaders interested in the intersection of social justice, entrepreneurship, and consulting. She has spoken at several conferences, including The Economist Africa Summit and The African Leadership Network and the AGCO Africa Summit. Recently, she received a TED Global Emerging Leader Scholarship to attend the TEDGlobal gathering. For three years, she contributed to the Huffington Post and her articles have been featured in Ayiba Magazine, which strives to break down African stereotypes and amplify African stories. Priscilla is an alumna of Watson University (’14) and the African Leadership Academy (’13). She enjoys reading, podcasts, and lengthy conversations about postcolonial theory. Priscilla’s PiAf placement is with the African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg, South Africa.